This is an original work of fanfiction and will not be posted anywhere else aside from the notebook I handwrote it in. If you see it elsewhere, please notify me.

Published Sunday, October 21 2007

Solitude. Quiet. Peace.

That was his world.

Warm. Dark. Comfortable. And then… the heavy shock that ran through his body was enough to startle him out of his meditative trance and he looked over at the eraser beside him. She was on her hands and knees, obviously having felt the same shock, since she was a powerful psychic within the confines of her abilities as an angel-like being.

His mind was wide open, broadcasting across multiple planes. The eraser ‘heard’ him before he actually said anything.

Master, what is it? What’s happened?

Someone has taken control of the Aquarian Age, was his response, matter-of-fact and truthful in their mental link. Our powers may soon be limited. We’ll have to force our hand in this matter.

I understand. Should we go to the others, then?

He nodded silently, drawing his worn coat around his slim frame as the female eraser spread her wings with a soft sigh, her light-coloured hair radiant in the softly pulsating light of her aura. Offering a faint smile, she took his hands, flying towards a nearby park full of her favourite sakura trees, which despite the season were still in bloom. The gentle scent of the petals calmed his still-shaken nerves, and already, he noticed, the two other winged ones were touching down, each offering a sheepish smile when he caught their eyes. One was taller than the other, his black hair tipped with blonde and his blue eyes sharply contrasting with his semi-gothic attire; that was the demon from DARKLORE, Masashi Kenta, age 19. The other one was slightly younger, with a tired look in his golden eyes, his chestnut hair and tanned, freckled skin lending him a kind but studious look to match with his wireframe glasses; this one was the gentle eraser Kishii Shirou, age 17. Also heading towards the area was the college student Saito Reiji, from the Arayashiki faction. His black hair and blue tie whipped around him in the fall breeze, blowing a leaf into his hair, which he hurredly wiped away. He seemed to be annoyed at being pulled out of class, but he always obeyed his Master without question, unlike his counterpart, Kenta.

“So when do we get ‘ta go and fight, then?” Kenta decided to put his two cents in, and he was promptly ignored by Reiji.

“Soon, I think,” the mind-breaker replied, rubbing the back of his neck and blushing a little. His messy brown hair blew around him in the steady wind, matching his baggy black shirt and equally baggy brown cargoes as they, too, whipped around his body. The worn jacket currently adorning his body matched his black eyes. Beside him, the female eraser Miata – also his sister – stood, her wings wrapped protectively around her lithe form. As usual, she wore her robes from when she was a contributing member of the eraser faction, before she had been mind-breaked and more or less adopted by Hayasaka Kuroe and his mother, Hayasaka Natsuki, whom they called Natsuki-san. One day a while in the past, a darklore had killed her, sensing her own psychic powers – and had in turn deemed her a threat. When Kuroe found him, he had decided that he wouldn’t kill him, because Natsuki-san wouldn’t have liked it. Following that thought through, Kuroe had instead mind-breaked the young DARKLORE, who later revealed his name to be Masashi Kenta.

Brushing her dual braids off of her shoulders after she retied the pink ribbons holding them as braids, Miata opened her eyes wide to the daylight, revealing the truth behind her light blonde hair and pale skin – she was an albino. Her pink eyes sparkled in the waning daylight as she smiled shyly and took her adopted brother’s hand and took to the air, heading towards the high school where her Master – also her brother – directed her towards.

To her surprise, her target was a group of high school students and one teacher – and it looked like they were completely unaware of their incoming presence.

Master, one of them stands apart from the rest. Mind break her, and perhaps we can learn more about the enemy at hand.

I agree, Kuroe responded mentally. Drop me off on the other side of the roof, so they won’t see me. It would appear that they are still unaware of our presence this evening.

In response, Miata landed gently and without sound, waiting for a moment before her Master’s mental call to her. She swooped in, immediately behind the long-haired blonde teen, and covered the girl’s mouth with a spell of silence.

Now, Master, come. They have not been alerted yet.

Kuroe leapt over the railing and looked straight into the psychic’s eyes. She turned away, struggling to keep their eyes from meeting, but a moment later, she found it to be useless. She found her eyes drawn to the plainly-dressed but still fairly handsome boy and a wave of serenity swept over her, forcing her to fall into the waiting arms of her new Master.

“And I was telling Isshin-senpai about the fireworks tonight, but he just blushed and said he had to go…” The voice both automatically knew to be that of the female mind breaker floated over to them. “Haruna-san? The fireworks are going to start soon, you’d better come back,” the voice continued. As she began to walk over, the first thing she noticed was the fading presence of a powerful aura, and then she noticed the feathers. Those of an eraser – the white ones – dusted the ground along with the darker, rougher feathers of a DARKLORE.

“Haruna!” Naoya’s cry was heard even by the mind breaker, who was almost fifty metres away at that point. The girl in Miata’s arms stirred slightly, as if she heard it, but under Miata’s powerful suggestion of sleep, she drifted into a deeper REM state of sleep.

Sleep well, Haruna-san, Miata’s mental voice whispered soothingly, comforting the troubled mind as they began the first leg of the relatively long flight home.

—–juvenile orion—–

“Mmmm…” Haruna stretched luxuriously, taking a second to let reality crash back down on her. She almost panicked when she remembered that she more or less belonged to another Master now, but forced herself to relax, since she knew panic wouldn’t change much. All she could really hope for at this point was a merciful Master and group that she would be serving with from this point forward. It did seem strange, that a mind breaker as powerful as Kirihara could be defeated in terms of mental power, but that just meant that her new Master was slightly stronger than her friend. All she could do was pray that nothing had happened to them.

“Ohayo, Haruna-san,” a gentle voice spoke to her, decidedly male but still quite comforting. She turned her head to face the boy that had mind-breaked her the previous night.

“Master,” she said both curiously and accusingly, trying the word out on her tongue as if it was new to her.

“Hai, that’s right,” he replied, nodding approvingly with the faintest hint of a blush brushing his cheeks. “I’m Kuroe.”

“You already know my name, though,” Haruna replied carefully.

“Hai, that too. My sister found it when she looked into your spiritual realm. Sorry,” he explained sheepishly, offering his hand to help her get up. “We didn’t really mean to invade your psyche or anything like that, but we didn’t really have a choice. You almost killed Miata half of the way back. Psychic backlash really hurts her, since she’s an eraser.” Gesturing over to the bed on the other side of the room, Haruna took notice of a frail-looking teenager with very pale hair and skin. She looked a lot like Amou, except for her dual braids and complexion.

“We only woke you up because we think you’re the only one that can reach her. She closed her mind off, and she’s the only really strong psychic in our group. Besides you, that is.”

“So you just wanted me for my powers?” Haruna looked almost disgusted by the thought.

“Nah. You were alone and seemed to be lonely,” Kuroe responded, smiling disarmingly once again. “Could you please help her now?”

“Of course, Master,” she replied, the words coming out of her mouth unbidden. Closing her eyes, she delved into the eraser’s spiritual realm under her new Master’s orders.

—–juvenile orion—–

“We have to find Haruna!” This was about the tenth outburst the Itsuki male had shown. Sweeping papers off of Nakaura-sensei’s desk at random, he gestured wildly as he panicked.

“Yeah,” Kaname agreed. They cared about Haruna, and were currently strategizing about ways to get the psychic back, but only Itsuki was panicking. Then again, it was his sister they were talking about.

As they continued planning and [in Naoya’s case] shouting, none of them noticed the small orb of light form in the corner of the room until Amou sensed it.

“Kirihara-san?” He pointed to the glowing ball of light. “That’s eraser magic.”

“The question is, is it from a friend or a foe?” That was Tomonori.

“Naoya, you are such a crybaby,” Haruna’s voice filtered through.

“Nee-chan! Are you alright?”

“You make it sound like I’m a prisoner or something. I’m not,” her good-natured voice assured them all. “My Master is quite kind. Actually, I kinda bullied him into letting me talk to you guys,” she continued, her muffled laugher coming through the communications magic. “I’ll come back to you guys soon, I promise, but until then, I’ll be fine. Stop worrying so much,” she sighed.

“Anou…Haruna-san? Not to interrupt anything, but Miata’s still too weak to keep this up for too long.”

“Oh! Sorry, Miata, Master. Anyway, you guys, chill. I’ll be okay.” With that, the orb faded and left all of them relatively confused.

“That was interesting,” Tomonori remarked.

“Yeah, it was. We’re going to go back and get Haruna anyway, aren’t we?”

“Of course, everyone,” Mana replied. “We can’t just leave her alone. I want to go bring her back… Is that okay?”